Citylink closes Galway - Cork bus route

Chris_533976

Irish Citylink Coaches will cease to operate the Cork – Galway via Limerick route with effect from 3rd November, 2008. In a letter to the Department of Transport, Citylink cited difficulties it encountered competing with state-owned Company on this route.

The decision was a difficult but necessary one. Citylink had invested €3.5m on new coaches in early 2007 as an extension to its Dublin – Galway service, however, it has suffered continuous losses for 18 months.

The decision by the Office of the Revenue Commissioners to cease repayment of Mineral Oil Tax on diesel used in providing bus services with effect 31st October, 2008 was also taken into consideration for the closure.

Irish Citylink will continue to operate and expand its network of services on Galway to Dublin Airport and Dublin City, Galway to Shannon Airport, and Galway to Clifden.

http://www.citylink.ie/medrel_8.htm

Great.

From a nice, comfortable, clean Citylink 3 1/4 hour journey I have to go on the ****ty overcrowded Bus Eireann services that has taken 5 1/2 hours in the past.

I dont want to go to Shannon on my way to Cork.

corktina

my son is a great Citylink fan....cheaper, quicker and more comfortable than BE he tells me.....what a shame

antoinolachtnai

The removal of the diesel rebate for public transport operators is going to have a very significant impact. It will drive costs up by around 6 or 7 percent and this is inevitably going to end up being passed on to the customer.

The cost involved is around 34 cents a litre.

In the UK they also removed the duty rebate scheme for public transport , but it was replaced with a mileage grant for public services. The policy there is to provide incentives to public transport operators while here the policy is to remove the incentives.

antoinolachtnai

The removal of the diesel rebate for public transport operators is going to have a very significant impact. It will drive costs up by around 6 or 7 percent and this is inevitably going to end up being passed on to the customer. All of this makes it harder to convince people to switch from the car to the bus.

The amount of the grant involved was around 34 cents a litre.

In the UK they also removed the duty rebate scheme for public transport , but it was replaced with a mileage grant for public services. The policy there is to provide incentives to public transport operators while here the policy is to remove the incentives.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/regional/buses/busgrants/bsog/

KC61

The decision was a difficult but necessary one. Citylink had invested €3.5m on new coaches in early 2007 as an extension to its Dublin – Galway service, however, it has suffered continuous losses for 18 months.

The decision by the Office of the Revenue Commissioners to cease repayment of Mineral Oil Tax on diesel used in providing bus services with effect 31st October, 2008 was also taken into consideration for the closure.

I think that this speaks volumes.

However better or otherwise Citylink were, I observed on several occasions that they simply were not carrying the numbers on this service, whilst on many occasions Bus Éireann were having to put a second bus onto each departure to cope with the loads.

Why this was I don't know, but the combination of poor loadings and the impending removal of the fuel rebate has forced the issue.

I would fear that this is only the start of what may well be a long list of service cancellations, and I certainly would not exempt either Bus Éireann or Dublin Bus from having to do so either. The combination of falling subsidies and the removal of the fuel rebate is going to put many services' long term survival into question. The real question is how long before our politicians realise this?

AlekSmart

Quote KC61

"I would fear that this is only the start of what may well be a long list of service cancellations, and I certainly would not exempt either Bus Éireann or Dublin Bus from having to do so either. The combination of falling subsidies and the removal of the fuel rebate is going to put many services' long term survival into question. The real question is how long before our politicians realise this?"

I believe the Politicians already do realize this,however with their present state of terror they are somewhat unwilling to bring yet more public scorn on themselves.

The current prevailing rumour within Bus Atha Cliath is for a cut in it`s service fleet of some 100 vehicles.
This would equate to approx 300 driving and support positions.

It would of course be short-sightedness of the highest order,but that has always been a core feature of Irish Government Policies since Independence.

What needs to be noted well is that less than 12 months ago Bus Atha Cliath were required to submit a FULL Business Appraisal and a FULLY costed projection for the utilization of the 100 EXTRA vehicles then being sought.

Long before a single EXTRA vehicle arrives,a major operator must ensure that it has enough trained staff available to operate and maintain these vehicles.

The recruitment,training and deployment of some 300 new staff is not possible without full sanction from the Government itself,in its role as shareholder.

We are now all well aware of the ridiculous situation which saw the new vehicles lying idle after delivery due to adjoining sections of the same Government Department having diametrically opposed views of their respective roles and duties.

The real lesson for us all is that there have been NO changes at the top of this disfunctional department,no enquiries as to the level of professional competence so publicly on display and even less willingness to recognise the ability of well run,affordable and available Public Transport to play a major role in fighting this recession.

Instead we have this incredible retreat from Moscow,where just as we were about to open the €36 Billion T21 war chest to "transform public transport" we are told that it is gone ....the only transformation will be a reverse engineered one carried out in a blind funk by a thoroughly disreputable gang of chancers.

As long as the responsible Minister continues to seek reports,reviews and consultants opinions as to the state of his new clothes then we can be guaranteed a disater in the making.....It`s the traditional way we do things here.....:mad:

Chris_533976

KC61 wrote: »

I think that this speaks volumes.

However better or otherwise Citylink were, I observed on several occasions that they simply were not carrying the numbers on this service, whilst on many occasions Bus Éireann were having to put a second bus onto each departure to cope with the loads.

Why this was I don't know, but the combination of poor loadings and the impending removal of the fuel rebate has forced the issue.

I would fear that this is only the start of what may well be a long list of service cancellations, and I certainly would not exempt either Bus Éireann or Dublin Bus from having to do so either. The combination of falling subsidies and the removal of the fuel rebate is going to put many services' long term survival into question. The real question is how long before our politicians realise this?

Yes, I agree. I used Citylink a lot from Cork to Galway -never did I see more than 20 people on it, and most times I was one of only a handful going all the way and not getting out halfway.

They were their own worst enemy. They didnt advertise enough. The service was word of mouth. No ads or anything, it was crazy.

If they'd pushed it, they'd have gotten a good chunk of the Bus Eireann services.

Poxyshamrock

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Yes, I agree. I used Citylink a lot from Cork to Galway -never did I see more than 20 people on it, and most times I was one of only a handful going all the way and not getting out halfway.

They were their own worst enemy. They didnt advertise enough. The service was word of mouth. No ads or anything, it was crazy.

If they'd pushed it, they'd have gotten a good chunk of the Bus Eireann services.

Completely agree with you there chris.
I travelled with them once and found them better than bus eireann on many levels.

I emailed them and told them they need to advertise in Limerick with signs and ads in papers.
Even a few bus stops wouldn't have went a miss.
In Limerick they just used Bus Eireann's bus stops which is no great way of advertising.
I imagine myself a lot of Limerick people thought it was a Cork-Galway service with no stops in Limerick.
It'll be sad to see them go.

markpb

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

Even a few bus stops wouldn't have went a miss.
In Limerick they just used Bus Eireann's bus stops which is no great way of advertising.
I imagine myself a lot of Limerick people thought it was a Cork-Galway service with no stops in Limerick..

Since this came up in another thread today, do you think it would have helped if they could have used bays in bus stations around the country? So you could go to Busaras in Limerick or Cork, buy a citylink ticket from the ticket office and board as you'd board a BE bus. With enough political will, you could even see their timetable on the BE website.

KC61

markpb wrote: »

Since this came up in another thread today, do you think it would have helped if they could have used bays in bus stations around the country? So you could go to Busaras in Limerick or Cork, buy a citylink ticket from the ticket office and board as you'd board a BE bus. With enough political will, you could even see their timetable on the BE website.

In my posts on this topic, I'm not advocating that you go that far. I see no reason why the bus stations cannot be shared, and perhaps each company having their own ticket desk, but I don't think that you could really expect competing bus companies to give room to another company's timetables on their own website?

markpb

KC61 wrote: »

In my posts on this topic, I'm not advocating that you go that far. I see no reason why the bus stations cannot be shared, and perhaps each company having their own ticket desk, but I don't think that you could really expect competing bus companies to give room to another company's timetables on their own website?

I know you weren't, but I am

BE could (theoretically) be split into a bus operating company and a bus route management company. The management company could run the bus depots, sell the tickets at those depots (and online) and provide a single timetable for all scheduled buses in Ireland. The bus operating company would compete with Citylink, Aircoach and others.

KC61

markpb wrote: »

I know you weren't, but I am

BE could (theoretically) be split into a bus operating company and a bus route management company. The management company could run the bus depots, sell the tickets at those depots (and online) and provide a single timetable for all scheduled buses in Ireland. The bus operating company would compete with Citylink, Aircoach and others.

I think that you're making a bit more sense now. I have in many posts advocated an independent network/infrastructure manager, which would be completely separate from the operating companies.

Therefore Bus Éireann would simply be an operating company, with the network/infrastructure manager being separate.

Getting back to Citylink, there is brand loyalty on the Galway/Dublin route among Galway people with the company, but there would have been very poor brand awareness among people in Cork and Limerick. From what I can see, the company failed to tackle this, and this would have contributed to the poor performance.

Realistically many of the bus company failures in recent years are a result of biting more than the companies concerned could chew, and poor advertising/brand awareness, and whilst undoubtedly there were some underhand practices used by the CIÉ group, they certainly were not the prime reason for these companies' failure.

The final nail in the coffin was the removal of the fuel rebate.